Good Morning!

 Buenos Dias Hermanos y hermanas
     I hope all of you had a fantastic week! Because I did!
To start we got a new Ward Mission Leader..... And he is awesome! The
work is definitely going to start progressing here in Clinton with the
great member work we have going on here! I love this Ward!
    We also actually had someone be nice to us when we were knocking
doors all day on Saturday! Never in my mission so far have I gotten
the response "We super busy right now but could you guys come back in
like an hour?" That was an unexpected. I guess I just got to used to
everyone being like "Nope, to busy, get off my property."
   I personally had an amazing spiritual moment this week though. One
of the Missionaries in my district asked for a blessing and it felt
odd because I hadn't given one in a while. Back in Bayonne I felt like
we dished those out like candy but this was one of maybe 3 I've given
since I got to Clinton. Not a bad thing at all it was just an
interesting observation.... But back to this blessing. Being a
missionary and a ever growing Member of this church I'm always trying
to understand one thing in particular. That is how I feel and
understand the Holy Ghost, or Spirit, and how it works through me.
    Giving a Blessing is one of those things that you really have to
listen to the spirit. It is so hard to just let God speak through you
without accidentally adding your own words. Without taking over the
phrases. Very hard indeed to not "Think". I've found that in many
cases we as people "Think" way too much. This Blessing that I was able
to be the conduit for was probably the first moment in which I felt
that it was not me speaking at all.... None of the words were mine.
With my eyes closed I felt as if I was no longer looking and feeling
through my body, but that I was temporarily floating to the side or
above, that those hands were not mine at that moment. It was an
amazing experience. Blessings are awesome and I hope that missionary
felt the Spirit as much as I did during that moment.
      Other then that nothing to big happening this week. I got a
haircut today.... So that's nice.... Ummmm oh and I sang one of our
investigators happy Birthday with a ukulele.... That was nice..... Fun
times indeed. Go Team Jesus!

                      Elder Anthony Sleigh Hicks
                  New Jersey Morristown Mission

(The following is Anthony's email form 8/15 that I forgot to post)

 Hello good Monday subjects of mine! I hope all is well in the Kingdom.
This week was a weird one indeed. I don't know if everybody is the
same but... My brain kinda explodes when the routine is shattered....
        To explain this week do to a few people being out of town and things
not working out a few of our usual routine weekly things that we do on
a set day and time every week got cancelled. All of the sudden we had
multiple hours to fill that we've not had to fill in a long time...
Whether or not we get something to do during that time my energy saps
completely for some weird reason... If somebody knows the science
behind that please send me the pill that fixes it.
    Anyways it has also been ridiculously hot and humid. My two
favorite things in the whole world when it comes to weather! We've
also had some awesome lightning storms or the last 2 weeks and it has
rained very, very hard. They can keep us missionaries from swimming
but they can't stop us from walking through walls of water!!!!
Muaahahah.
    I did my first exchange as a district leader which was weird. How
am I supposed to be an example for these missionaries when they're
obviously better then me. It's all good though. It's fun to work with
the newer missionaries. Let's me see where I was at 9months ago and
compare what has changed.
    Teaching the Gospel is great! Sorry I don't have much to talk
about this week. Kind of a slow one but that's alright.
    Here is a picture of a rabbit.... That I may or may not have first
commented that "He is lucky New Jersey blocks guns".... Or else this
fella may or may not have turned into a mid afternoon snack..... Who
knows.... I could be lying... Maybe.

Meetings...And long drives

Good Morning fellow human beings....
        Twas quite the week!!!
The theme has very much been Meetings.......
        Wednesday was annoying because we had to drive an hour to go to our
interviews with the president which is good and all.... It's just a
long drive and we're a little regulated on miles is all...
        Then on Thursday we had to make that same hour long drive to go to a
big mission conference! Woohoo...
This was a great conference though. President Taggart actually had his
neighbor, who is not a member, train all the missionaries on
non-verbal communication which was really cool and really funny
because there were several missionaries who said very blunt comments
about other churches(which weren't totally correct) to the guy
training us and he would always joke and snark back that he's a
Catholic.... But it was an amazing training and the guy really knew
his stuff! Gonna use a lot of it through the rest of my life. You'll
never be able to hide what you're thinking from me ever again!
Muuuwahahahahah!!!!
        We also got our big training on Facebook.....
        So in case you haven't noticed yet I have been using Facebook quite a
bit lately! And it is super helpful!!! It makes it way easier to
contact investigators and members. We can also use it to send stuff to
our investigators like videos or links which have really helped out a
bunch already! Also if you guys see anything that a missionary posts
you should like it so that it can get to more people! Spread the word
to the world!!!!
        Something super cool that happened this week is that we had an
amazing lesson! The spirit was so strong and I could really see the
person we were teaching's mindset change through the whole lesson.
They were so excited to read the Book of Mormon afterwards! It really
gave me a boost for the week... Because meetings really drain it out
of you...
        A big bonus for the week also was getting to partake of delicious
food at some of my favorite members houses this week. So that's pretty
fun too. I absolutely love this Ward here.... Maybe it's just because
I've only served in 2 wards but this one is awesome and I genuinely
feel like we as missionaries are really a part of it. Not just those 2
dudes who cycle through every once and a while. It means a lot to
us.... So if you see the missionaries say hi to them, be their friend,
because they left all theirs  behind to help the area you live in.
Just sayin....
Thank you for all the support you guys give us as missionaries, it
really helps! Stay awesome and keep on spreadin the word! Love you
all, until next week....

                      Elder Anthony Sleigh Hicks
                  New Jersey Morristown Mission

I figured I got to have at least one picture to send, so here is my beautiful face.

Facebook Launch!

Hello my good friends and Family members! Twas and interesting week,
Twas indeed.....
To start off I got my new Companion on Tuesday. His name is Elder
Owens and he is from Clinton, Utah. Ironic right? He's pretty cool
even though he doesn't say Clinton, or Hunting, or Mountain
correctly... His dad is like a Speech Pathologist or something.
Apparently some people don't believe that the Utah way to speak is the
right way to speak..... I call blasphemy.
        Our weather has been the exact opposite since my last email... It has
been on and off pouring rain for the last week....  I thought the
humidity before was bad....
        I've also been called to be a District Leader was was really
interesting on Wednesday when we had District meeting because I'm
supposed to give trainings to the missionaries in my district for an
hour and a half... Except the higher ups didn't inform me on what to
train on until the morning of. So I got to practice my wonderful
skills of "Wingin' it" and come up with a discussion about finding
people to teach on the fly... I think they need to do trainings for
Wingin it.... I feel like that's what we do half the time no matter
how prepared we are. I credit my mother for all past trainings on that
subject for myself, thanks mom.
        It's different being a district leader. Not that I'm begging for
leadership but I feel so much better as a missionary, and more
motivated. And it was really weird because I got called and a switch
flicked in my head and now I spend half my time thinking about my
district and trying to think of ways to help them. It's really
different. But I love the feeling! Hard to explain but maybe some of
you can understand it in someway.
        Anyways for the BIG NEWS!!! If you hadn't seen yet Facebook/Online
Proselyting is now open in the New Jersey Morristown Mission! We can
now start Using good Ole Facebook to talk to our members and
investigators and to help find and interact with people in our area's
And AROUND THE WORLD! We now have the ability to teach anyone
anywhere. Though Face to Face is better interaction, there are just
sometimes that that isn't gonna happen. This is an awesome new thing
to be a part of and our Mission is one of the Test Missions. They
haven't even finished all the manuals and videos to train us yet, all
of them have "Draft July 2016" stamped on them. So this'll be a cool
experience and we'll see how well it works out.
        Thank you guys so much for all your support and love and I hope it's
all going well for you.
                      Elder Anthony Sleigh Hicks
                  New Jersey Morristown Mission

 Young Elder Eduardo Hicks testing out the badge

Transfer Doctrine!!! And epic Heat Wave!!!

Hello all the people from my Past Life!!!
This week was a fun and random week. Solid mixed week of knocking
doors and helping members!
        Wednesday we picked up one of our smaller members. His name is
Eduardo. He's in Teacher's Quorum but looks like he should still be in
his middle years of Primary. But he asked to hang out with us for a
bit so we picked him up and went and knocked some doors! So exciting,
I know. But hey he managed to be around when we went to a dinner
appointment so he got free food. Nothing to complain about there! Then
we got invited to go to the Young Men's activity especially because
they were supposed to have some Less actives and Potential
investigators there... But none of them showed up. Eh... It happens.
        Friday was pretty eventful too.... We went and talked to Joni, who's
in a part member family and us and her husband are trying to get her
to church but she usually doesn't like the missionaries so they could
never get in. But guess who was able to get her to talk to us and
basically spill out her life story...... This guy with thumbs and a
name tag typing away at this keyboard.... Also my companion, he was
there too..... But ya we ended up giving her a blessing and she didn't
seem totally convinced of it. But here comes the funny part. The next
day we get a call from her. We couldn't answer because we were busy
but she left a message saying that "Whatever prayer you guys said
must've worked, because I woke up all happy today!" So hey, Blessings
work. Just sayin.
        Saturday was the day I thought I would die..... So we were helping
one of our Investigators flip a jacuzzi over because he had to rebuild
it's frame. Those things are ridiculously heavy by the way. It was
also like a million degrees and like 200% Humidity. More water then
air.
        We were sweating so bad that we went and changed our clothes before
we went to the ward Pioneer Day activity.... Which we ended up just
sweating buckets at anyways.... But it was super fun! And not good for
me.... One of the members(Who also plays the piano and organ for
sacrament) brought a Ukulele for a small skit she was doing for the
kids. I mentioned to her that I was learning how to play it and she
forced it into my hands and made me start playing it.... Within 15
minutes are was as my mother likes to call it "Voluntold" to sing in
sacrament the next day. So guess who sang "Abide with me Tis Eventide"
in front of the whole world alone yesterday?.... But everyone said I
did awesome so I guess I can take their word for it I guess.
                Now for transfer Doctrine!!!!
I'm still in Clinton! But I get a new Companion tomorrow, Elder Owens!
Goodbye Elder Reese!
But the bigger thing.... I'm a District Leader now!!!!! Who thought
that would be a good idea? They think I'm responsible enough to be
responsible? Like I know God doesn't make mistakes or anything.... But
maybe someone read a prompting wrong?.... Now I have to give
trainings!
        Anyways.... Exciting times. Live long and prosper people from the Non
Humid part of the country, because I'm probably gonna die here.
        Love you guys! Thanks for all the support.

Sweat or Rain?

(From July 18th email sorry for the late post. Love, Holly)

Wow, this was a crazy week!
        I'm pretty much exhausted right now....
So to start it was an interesting couple of days early on because we
got the privilege of having the assistant on exchange with us for 3
days.... Which is kinda stressful but very helpful at the same time!
Stressful because you feel like he's watching your every move waiting
for you to mess up, but helpful because he offered some great tips to
help us work our area better!
        Wednesday was Zone Conference and it was especially different because
a big announcement was made..... This mission has been approved to do
Online Proselyting.... In other words means that we are getting
Facebook!!!! Now a lot of us have very mixed feelings about it but
it'll be interesting to see how this works. Now we can stalk people in
a whole new way! I'm pretty sure Missionaries are the best Personal
Investigators out there.... Now that we have access to Facebook people
can never escape us! Muuuhahahah......
        So ya, that's pretty good news. It opens up to us in the first week
of August so everybody be prepared for a whole new world of
missionaryness!!!!
        Now for my week..... Thursday was the big day..... So Thursday is our
walking day, or at least for us, "Biking Day". And luckily we had a
third bike so our assistant could keep up. We decided to try and bike
to an area that we hadn't knocked before...... It was very rough,
turns out that google maps doesn't inform you that it was pretty much
all uphill. Thursday also turned out to be the hottest and most humid
day of the year so far. So I was very much hating life.
        After a good hour bike ride uphill we finally arrived at our
destination, completely drenched in sweat..... Best door knocking
condition possible! But luckily the Lord is great for providing
excuses. The weather suddenly turned and dumped rain for about 2
minutes... Like literally dumped! So now we had an excuse to be
completely drenched, "It's not sweat, just rainwater now!" So that
worked out.....
        As we continued to knock we ended up coming upon this awesome Indian
guy named Kk who had recently converted to Christianity from Hinduism.
This guy had some serious miracles in his life and loved anything to
do with Jesus Christ! It was awesome. We are now currently trying to
acquire a Hindi Book of Mormon to make his faith explode even more!
        We then got the opportunity to ride our bikes back home.... All
downhill, much better.
Another interesting thing that happened...
        On Saturday the Stake Family History people put on a presentation for
Leonard Lance, who is in the New Jersey Congress. We got to go to that
and it was pretty cool, had a chance to talk to him and found out how
much he respected the LDS Church. He was friends with Mitt Romney and
kept saying how much he respected the guy and was angry that he didn't
run again for the presidency. So that was pretty cool.
        Other then that nothing too eventful for the week... Taught some
lessons... Knocked a lot of doors... And didn't get enough sleep....
The life of a Missionary.....
                Hope you all had a wonderful week! Love you guys and Thankyou for
all your support!

                      Elder Anthony Sleigh Hicks
                  New Jersey Morristown Mission

Service!!!!!

   Hello my dear Monday subjects, I hope ya'lls 4th of July was as
deliciously explosive as mine was! Last Monday for me consisted of
feeding some deer and apple, eating some great food, driving hastily
for 30 minutes to a firework show that we showed up late too because
it started early due to the rain that was coming down. We then
proceeded to get rained on the whole show but it was still super cool!
We then went to one of my favorite family's house for some cheesecake.
Our Fourth of July curfew was to be back in our apartments and getting
ready for bed by 11..... Me and my companion arrived on our front
porch at 10:59..... I'd say that is time well used!
   Now for why I tagged this email as "Service!!!!"......... I feel as
if that was the theme for our week. To start, Monday in the morning we
helped one of our members move rocks to build a rock wall in his back
yard for a few hours. Tuesday we helped our recent convert put in her
new window AC units, Wednesday we also helped another member move her
couch and Entertainment center from her old house. Wednesday we also
helped that favorite family mentioned up above completely tear out
their old garden which was really fun!
   Thursday falls under the "Service" category because we had to get
our car serviced...... But because of a bunch of little things that
fall under "Policy" we had to drive 35 minutes away to a pep
boys...... And then proceed to sit there for 5 hours while they
changed our oil... Then changed our front tires and the alignment....
That was pretty terrible but we did talk to a lady and refer her to
the missionaries that covered that city!
   Friday we painted and investigators basement! This is a lady that
we are subtly trying to start teaching her because her son and her
mother are both members and she seems at least slightly interested so
we jumped on it when we found out she needed help!
   Then Saturday morning we continued to live up to our nickname the
"Mormon Movers" and helped a member and his family move from their old
house to their new one........ I am thoroughly exhausted from this
last week!
   Luckily in between all that we were able to teach some great
lessons! Our investigator Bruce came to church for the first time
yesterday and that was a big boost!
   Now all of you go out and find some service to do because it is
great and makes you feel good! Don't ask questions just go do it!
   Love you guys, stay awesome, and Thank you for all your support!
                     Elder Anthony Sleigh Hicks
                 New Jersey Morristown Mission

 This is a picture another missionary made of me and sent it out on the 4th.....

The front few from our relief Society president's front porch,

 the fog was rolling in and I felt like zombies were gonna start coming out of the tree line any second.

 One of my favorite families in the ward here in Clinton! They are awesome!

 The next 2 are more from our service on Monday.

America Day!!!!!!

Now that we've started off on the right note for today. HAPPY AMERICA DAY!!!!
        Nothing gets me excited like the smell of Gunpowder and the National
Anthem blasting in the background! The distant booms of explosions
just bring a tear to my eye. And since my spirit animal is an
Eagle(That's what people keep telling me) it is even more special.
        Anyways..... Twas a good week! We taught some awesome lessons.
On Wednesday we ran into a lady that was a referral and talked to her
about trials and how she can find help from her Heavenly Father. It
was really spiritual and you could tell she really needed it. We
scheduled another appointment for Saturday.
        Saturday comes and we go over and end up teaching her, one of our
former investigators that lives in the same building, and then another
guy who just walked up off of the street to listen to what we were
saying, it was really cool. Though at first we thought the guy off the
street was coming to bible bash us. Turns out he was actually
interested in what we were teaching though not interested in changing.
He was a "Progressive" Christian. From what his shirt said "Got Stoned
in Salem" and from the potent aroma that he must use as Cologne,
because it was thick, I understood what he meant.
        My other exciting moment for the week was Tuesday night. It was the
most awesome rain storm I have ever driven through.... I'm starting to
learn that the rainstorms here are epic. I felt like a race car
driver...... Dodging falling trees and 2 foot deep drainage puddles
that would swamp our little Corolla and slowing down to hear the
thunder boom. Twas a good week indeed.
        I hope ya'll are gettin' your patriot out and I'm currently scolding
myself for not having an America tie. Bad Elder Hicks!
        Once again happy America day.

                     Elder Anthony Sleigh Hicks
                  New Jersey Morristown Mission